Interview With Ugly Betty’s Ana Ortiz

 There is a great interview with Ugly Betty’s Ana Ortiz in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  An excerpt:

Q: So, you’re a television junkie.

A:Ah, yes. But at least now that I have TiVo I’m a little more disciplined with what I watch. I’m loving “Dexter” and “Weeds.” I love “Heroes,” and I’m also obsessed with “America’s Top Model” and “Project Runway” [laughs].

Q: What are the pros and cons of being an actress with a Latino heritage?

A: I suppose the con would be I couldn’t do a period piece right now. Although in theater you always can. So there are ways to sort of get around the stereotype thing. The pros would be everything. I feel like it’s really our time. Timing is everything in life, and it’s a really wonderful time to be a Latin actress or actor.

Ana has a point about timing:  Hollywood is on the cusp on accepting a new prominence of Latino roles, above and beyond stereotypes.  She is, quite literally, in the right place and the right time.

More after the jump!

She then goes on to talk about how she originally auditioned for the role of Betty, and how much she is like Hilda:

Q: When you auditioned for the role of Betty, what did you do to ugly up?

A: I was super plain. I just put on some glasses and kept my hair kind of flat and layered on the clothing. I knew that the role was really wrong for me. My objective was mainly to go in there and give a really good audition because I was so excited about the project. I just wanted them to remember me, so that I could be involved in the future.

Q: Your character Hilda comes off as frazzled but fearless. Are you similarly inclined?

A: That’s nice, I like that “frazzled and fearless” [laughs]. I can definitely relate to being frazzled, for sure. I wish I could be as fearless as Hilda. She is kind of inspiring that way. It’s really wonderful to play a character who is brave and sort of uncaring about people’s opinions, as she is.

Q: You had to have it a little bit, right, to get into the field you are in?

A: Yeah, definitely. I mean following any dream, whatever that is, takes a certain amount of fearlessness for sure. Usually a dream is hard to reach, hard to attain. That’s why it’s called a dream.

Speaking of Hilda, we’ve asked this before at Ugly Betty News, and Ana gets asked again:

Q: What are the chances of Hilda ending up with Daniel?

A: [Laughs.]. Oh, my God. I don’t know. They’ve never given us much of an inkling of that. We had the one episode where I sort of just [kissed him] to torture Betty. That makes me giggle. It definitely would be fun and interesting. They’ve never said anything to me about it, but they have talked about Hilda dating, so something is in the works.

I thought it was going to be Gio (they were good together, in my opinion), but they nixed it in the last episode.  It’ll be interesting to see who they come up with.  Finally, Ana talks about being a New Yorker living on the west coast:

Q: How do you like the West Coast, being a New Yorker?

A:I am New York-born and raised. I love it here. You can’t beat the weather. I’m half Puerto Rican and half Irish, and my Puerto Rican side does not tolerate the cold very well. It is really nice to not have to go through winter again. I have to say that when I came out to L.A., I was struggling, and it’s a lot easier to struggle and be broke here in L.A. than it is in New York. New York is just very expensive and very difficult, you know, theater doesn’t pay that well.

Q: You are getting famous and established now, so are you going to try and control turning into a diva?

A: [Laughs.] Yeah, I have a really strong support system of family and friends who put me in check really quick whenever I start to act up. So I don’t have any fear that it will be a problem.

No divas on the Ugly Betty crew, except for guest stars!

Read the entire interview.